The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-10-01
THE DIVINE SOURCE STRENGTH.

tartan motives. But a man cannot be
spiritual without also being moral, for
spirituality is morality touched with
emotion" as Matthew Arnold expresses
it. What is called "mere morality
reaches its highest point when a man
is good because it is best for him to be
good. The spiritual man is good, be-
cause it is the will OF good God, ex-
pressed in natural law, in inspired lit
erature, and in the individual conscious
ness. do not know but what with all
our theologians and philosophers we
shall have to turn to the recently printed
words of an enlightened heather, for
the best and sharpest distinctions be-
tween these two elements of character,
"Religion," says Yam Phou Lee, in
the September North american ReUie,o,
pertains to the heart ethics deals
more with outward conduct. Religion
inculcates principles ethics lays down
rules. Religion without ethics is like
disembodied spirit; ethics without
religion is body from which the soul
has fled" A strong soul. Even in
days of excessive physicalness its force
was felt
There stand David and Matthew.
David is the pre-eminent warrior of his
day and nation. At his word vast ar
mics are formed. Tribes, cities, ma
tions vanish at his touch. On the
throne awful power resides in the wand
he swings. A plain man in simple
dress of skins, with melancholy mien
lifts finger, utters a sentence of but
four words, and the king trembles like
an aspen. There you see the differ
ence between the two kinds of strength
So has it been through the ages. Jesus
before PLATE, Paul before Felix, Luther
before the Diet. Not always has the
spiritual force won an immediate or
an apparent victory. But, as after a
certain famous battle, the ghosts of the
slain we're said to arise and fight the
battle over again to different issue, so
we may say, the spirit of noble men de-
feated by the superiority of carnal
| forces have remained upon the battle
field until victory has perched forever
upon their banners. In the long run
the spiritual forces are sure to win.
The fires of Smithfield cost the Cath
Ollie church the empire of Great Britain.
The Ephesians in their day, and you
in your day, are urged to acquire that
kind of strength, and to acquire it by
the exercise Of the spiritual faculty.
''Be strong in the Lord and in the
power of his might"
Not all can be strong physically.
Some are born to an inheritance of pain
and weakness. "How long have you
been in that chair % asked one of an
invalid, slowly being wheeled along the
beach. Twenty years." was the sad
answer. The saddest face I have ever
seen was the face of child, doomed to
lifetime of physical decreptitude.
We cannot all be intellectually great.
1t is very hard to come to that conclu-
sion; and it isn't safe for one to say it
of any one but himself. But it is a
fact. All this talk about songs yet
unsung, poems yet unwritten, pictures
yet implanted, statues yet uncarved,
fortunes yet unmade, and all kinds Of
wonderful genius in us, but undeveloped
as yet, is nonsense. 1t is very fortu-
nate thing for the world that these
songs are yet unsung, these poems yet
unwritten, and so on. Not to think Of
himself more highly than he ought to
think, is wise bit of advice. There
may be some who follow it. 1 have
never met them-as, am sorry to say,
l don't happen to go their way.
But spiritual strength, thank God, is
possible to all. o, what splendid ex-
hibition of it the world has seen in
most unexpected places. 1t has made
the invalid on couch of pain mighty
force. 1t has grandly sustained ignor-
ant and simple minds. The converted
savage, turning from gross idolatry and
sinful lusts, living purely, devoutly,
lovingly, before God, seems sublime
alongside of the pleasure devotee, be he
heather or civilized, who cannot resist
the faintest pleadings Of temptation.
Spiritual strength-the strength of
righteousness, the strength to meet
and strangle every temptation that
would lead us through by-paths to sin
and death. Strength to continue ever
more in the right way. Strength to
reach forth and uplift poor, stricken
humanity. Strength to meet and tram
pie under foot the monsters that OPP
press our race. The strength that
throbbed in the heart of Jesus Christ;
who would not possess it? All men
crave it.
But 1 recognize the fact that all men
are not willing to look for 1t in the
source alluded to in our text:
"Be strong in the Lord" That is,
looking to religion for strength.
1t is not clear to some men that re-